The world boundary is the area defining the intended spatial edges of a Minecraft dimension. It is distinct from hard limits, which are defined by limitations of the programming language itself.
Definition[]
Java Edition[]
Horizontal limits[]
There are several different intended horizontal boundaries in the game.
Firstly is the maximum distance nether portals can generate at in the Overworld, at X/Z ±29,999,872 blocks (128 blocks, from the 16 blocks per chunk multiplied by the 8 block multiplier). This limit prevents any surpassing of the next borders using the Nether to multiply distance by 8.
The next layer is the world border, which lies at X/Z ±29,999,984 by default, and establishes an arbitrary (but capped at this default value) blockade to prevent the player from advancing. There are several methods of bypassing this border.
The third layer lies exactly one chunk further, at X/Z: ±30,000,000. At this point, there is an invisible "wall" preventing the player from advancing by setting any players' positions beyond it to it, even in spectator mode. Using commands like /teleport
does not work, since the game does not accept any value beyond X/Z: ±29,999,999. This value is hard-coded into the game's source code. Other block interactions, such as TNT exploding or water flowing, affects blocks outside this limit. By using a minecart (in a superflat preset with the top layer as rails), the player can go even further, up to X/Z: ±30,000,256. At that point, the player is frozen in place until the minecart is destroyed, then they are teleported back to X/Z: ±30,000,000.
As the server thinks the player is still at X/Z: ±30,000,000, no more chunks generate past X/Z: ±30,000,256. This is considered to be the absolute edge of the Minecraft world.
By editing the source code for the game, it is possible to extend the terrain generation and world border past X/Z: ±30,000,256 (up to X/Z: ±2,147,483,647) and experience the game quite normally (no ghost chunks; mobs can spawn alright; commands accept higher values). The game performs normally even at distances of X/Z: ±2,000,000,000, as in modern versions most distance effects have been patched out of the game. It is advisable to take note of what distance effects do exist, as well as the hard limits present - notably the ±33,554,432 lighting stop and hard limit of ±2,147,483,647.
Vertical limits[]
The player is able to build up to y=320, and down to y=-64. However, one can still fly with creative mode or elytra, or use explosives/slime blocks and pistons to get past y=320.
Bedrock Edition[]
Horizontal limits[]
Bedrock Edition technically has no hard boundary, and the world at far distances is far too ravaged by several distance effects to provide any semblance of reasonable gameplay. Nonetheless, there do exist intentional defined limits for some game functionality:
- It is impossible to teleport beyond X/Z ±30,000,000 using commands in the vanilla game. Any attempts to teleport further puts the player back to this coordinate. Attempting to use any block placement command results in an error message. Despite this, it is still possible to use structure blocks and the
/locate
command. - X/Z ±31,999,872 are the maximum coordinates reachable in the Overworld via Nether portal. The only way to teleport beyond these coordinates is to use external tools (such as a world editor).
Vertical limits[]
The player is able to go to Y ±30,000,000 but it is impossible to teleport beyond these coordinates without the use of external tools.
Effects[]
Java Edition[]
Generally, long server response times caused by massive distances produce unintended results, but most blocks and entities behave normally, with a few exceptions:
- Pistons may sometimes not extend or retract until they receive another block update.
- Beyond the X/Z ±30,000,000 mark:
Beyond this, most of the unintended behavior of blocks and entities is caused by either the world border (as detailed here) or being sufficiently far from the world origin (see this page). Some odd effects that are attributed to the boundary itself are as follows:
- Attempting to walk into the boundary still displays a walking animation, walking sounds, and cause view bobbing, effects that are not present for walking into the world border or solid walls.[1]
- Using elytra to fly into the border causes the flying sound to continue to play at full volume rather than quietly or not at all.[2]
- Rain particles always hit the ground at exactly sea level regardless of the actual shape of terrain beyond 30 million blocks.[3]
History[]
Horizontal boundaries[]
Java Edition pre-Classic | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
rd-131655 | The world has an edge that can be fallen from indefinitely. This edge is located at X/Z: 0 in the negative direction and X/Z: 256 in the positive direction. | ||||
Java Edition Classic | |||||
0.0.12a | There is now a solid border at the edge of the world. | ||||
An "infinite" ocean (consisting of a layer of water atop a thick bedrock column) extends past the world boundary rather than being just void. Where this ocean truly ends is unknown, and if said ending is intentionally programmed is also not known. Interestingly, this used the old water texture even when water itself was updated to have a newer texture. | |||||
These fake blocks beyond the boundary have odd rendering behavior, notably with fog. Looking at them from certain directions, espeially when underwater, can make them appear as a solid color. | |||||
0.0.14a | The location of the positive world border now depends on the world size. The negative world border always remains at X/Z: 0. | ||||
Java Edition Indev | |||||
0.31 | 20100106 | The world boundary is now variable depending on the chosen world type. It may be even further customisable through world editing. | |||
Blocks outside of the world can be targeted and even "broken", but immediately reverts to a prior state afterward. | |||||
Block rendering has been reported to stop at a variety of different positions; X/Z: ±2,111, ±2,176 and ±2,304.[needs testing][more information needed] | |||||
Sky rendering stops at X/Z: ±2,560.[needs testing] | |||||
? | After attempting to move a bit past the farthest distance that can be built, the player is pushed back toward the center of the world with an increasingly hard force depending on their distance. | ||||
Java Edition Infdev | |||||
20100227-1 | The world boundary has been completely removed, allowing the player to access terrain as far as the game itself is capable of handling. | ||||
A skybox ( #0000FF) has been added. It stops at X/Z: ±1,024 | |||||
20100313 | A new boundary has been set in place: blocks no longer generate beyond X/Z: ±32,000,000, giving way to the void. | ||||
Updating blocks next to this void causes an extreme amount of lighting updates, effectively freezing the game for an extended period of time. | |||||
The aforementioned skybox has been removed. | |||||
20100413 | Attempting to move past X/Z: ±32,000,000 puts the player in a permanent glitchy, jittery stasis[4] requiring external tools to escape. | ||||
Java Edition Alpha | |||||
v1.2.0 | ? | Beyond X/Z: ±32,000,000, phantom "fake chunks" (where chunks of bare unpopulated terrain render, but collision physics are completely absent) now appear. The blocks are not solid and can be fallen through. | |||
Terrain beyond X/Z: ±32,000,000 would also not be populated with terrain features such as trees and blobs. As such, this allows the complete avoidance of a fatal distance effect involving ore generation between X/Z: ±67,108,864 and X/Z: ±134,217,728 which would otherwise cause runaway chunk loading and game crashes. | |||||
Unknown | |||||
? | Many single blocks of water and lava generate at the edge of the world, which are actually springs, as the intangible blocks are considered air. | ||||
Java Edition Beta | |||||
1.8 | Pre-release | The "fake chunks" now start at X/Z: ±30,000,000, 2 million blocks less than in Alpha v1.2.0 - Beta 1.7.3. | |||
Using an NBT editor, beyond X/Z: ±30,000,032, the player gets stuck in a glitched position and need to use a program to make their character back. Beyond X/Z: ±30,000,064, blocks no longer render. The map is blank from here on out.[is this the correct version?] | |||||
Exceeding the 32 million block limit (only possible through nether portals or external editors) now causes the game to crash.[verify] | |||||
Java Edition | |||||
1.2.1 | 12w03a | The player's looking direction now freezes when going beyond the 30 million border, rather than the player's head twisting unnaturally on an unmoving body. | |||
1.3.1 | 12w18a | The wall that freezes the entities beyond X/Z: ±30,000,032 no longer exists, allowing the player to access terrain up to 32 million blocks. | |||
12w27a | Nether portals are now limited to X/Z: ±29,999,872 in the Overworld. | ||||
1.7.2 | 13w36a | Minecraft crashes after the player surpasses X/Z: ±29,999,840 on Default, Large Biomes, and AMPLIFIED worlds. | |||
13w37a | All blocks at X/Z: ±30,000,000, including air itself, now act completely solid, creating an effective wall at this point. | ||||
This solid wall extends upward to Y: 2,147,483,647 and downward to Y: −2,147,483,648, even though blocks cannot exist in these regions. As such, if a player is moved outside this boundary via commands or external tools, they are unable to move. | |||||
Walking on this wall far enough until X/Z ±32,000,000 causes the game to crash. | |||||
Beyond the invisible wall, if items are thrown, the falling animation is jittery. The thrown item disappears upon contact with any block other than air. | |||||
Beyond X/Z: ±32,000,000, the player is kicked out with an "Illegal Position" message. | |||||
Some mobs (e.g. slimes) try to go past the world border, to no avail. | |||||
1.8 | 14w02a | Chunks beyond X/Z: ±30,000,000 now no longer render. | |||
Blocks beyond X/Z: ±30,000,000 are no longer all solid, allowing players to move slightly beyond this point manually. | |||||
Actually moving beyond X/Z: ±30,000,000 freezes the player in place, unable to move anywhere else without commands. Their hand and player model in third person view disappears, and they appear frozen in an animation in the survival inventory screen. | |||||
14w06a | Attempting to move beyond X/Z: ±30,000,000 now kicks the player for being in an illegal position. | ||||
14w17a | The world border has been added. As it causes many effects unrelated to the actual edge of the world, see World border#History for further information regarding it. | ||||
Exceeding 30 million blocks now outright crashes the game rather than kicking the user back to the server list. | |||||
14w18a | Exceeding X/Z: ±30,000,000 now kicks the player again rather than crashing. | ||||
Some cases of the game completely freezing have been noted in versions with this behavior, forcing the player to close the window with Task Manager or the like. | |||||
The world border always renders and behave as though it is at ±29,999,984, even if set to be at a value beyond this. It can be set to be smaller however. | |||||
pre3 | There is now an effective "wall" at X/Z: ±29,999,999 preventing the player from surpassing it. | ||||
This wall is in fact the game simply teleporting the player to exactly X/Z: ±29,999,999 if their coordinates exceed X/Z: ±29,999,999, rather than a solid wall like was present in 1.7. As such, it results in some interesting visual quirks that were not present for the former, such as the player walking animation/view bobbing still playing while walking into it despite the player not actually changing their position. | |||||
Teleporting anywhere between X/Z: ±29,999,999 and X/Z: ±30,000,000 causes the player to be immediately teleported back to X/Z: ±29,999,999 after one tick. Teleporting to exactly X/Z: ±30,000,000 freezes the player in place (allowing them to teleport back), and teleporting anywhere beyond X/Z: ±30,000,000 crashes the game. | |||||
1.9 | 15w37a | Chunks beyond X/Z: ±30,000,000 are now rendered again, up to a variable limit, which as been reported as X/Z: ±30,000,224, ±30,000,240 and even ±30,000,496. Many of the issues surrounding block and item rendering have also disappeared; with this, the world boundary is now generally more stable. Also, the chunks beyond X/Z: ±30,000,000 are now solid and can perfectly generate structures like villages, mineshafts, and trees. | |||
15w51a | Teleporting past X/Z: ±30,000,000 is no longer possible; the player always gets teleported to X/Z: ±30,000,000, even when using external programs. | ||||
? | Items no longer move erratically beyond X/Z: ±30,000,000. | ||||
1.16 | 20w06a | Rain always appears at sea level beyond X/Z: ±30,000,000 (likely from fixing MC-131770).[3] | |||
1.18 | ? | Nether portals are now limited by the world border - the long-distance nether portal creation distance limit no longer seems to exist. | |||
Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
v0.1.0 | Worlds are 256 blocks long in both directions. Whether the positions of the boundaries actually used to be consistent are unknown, although they are not in current Old worlds. | ||||
The edges of the world are made up of invisible bedrock. This extends up to 128 blocks and can be walked on forever. | |||||
v0.9.0 | build 1 | Added infinite world generation, which removes the boundary for worlds of that type. | |||
? | Nether portals can no longer be generated or place the player any farther than X/Z: ±31,999,872. | ||||
? | /tp can no longer take the player past X/Z: ±30,000,000. |
- Indev era
- Infdev-Alpha era
Terrain (Far Lands) as seen from beyond X/Z: ±32,000,000
The northwest corner of the end of the world in Java Edition Infdev 20100618 from third person view.
- Alpha-Beta era
- Beta 1.8-1.6.4 era
- 1.7.2-1.7.10 era
- 1.9+ era
At ±33,554,432 lighting stopped working. See Java Edition hard limits#Lighting breakdown (X/Z: ±33,554,432).
Vertical boundaries[]
- early Pocket Edition boundary (when was that floor added?)
- Console Edition boundary and effects
- 3DS edition boundary
- infdev: player model might break above 1024, and there may be jittering effects out of y bounds
- entities not rendering above 612 (https://youtu.be/SYuocMFOD6w?t=1m18s).
Java Edition pre-Classic | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
rd-131655 | The world has a bottom that can be fallen from indefinitely. It is assumed to be at Y: ±0, as no proper way to view coordinates existed yet. | ||||
Java Edition Classic | |||||
0.0.12a | The bottom of the world remained unchanged despite the addition of bedrock to make it impossible to fall out of. | ||||
Java Edition | |||||
1.6.2 | You can now teleport all the way to 4,999,999,999,999,999,999. | ||||
? | Teleportation beyond Y: ±4,096 is no longer allowed. | ||||
? | Teleportation beyond Y: ±4,096 is again possible. | ||||
? | Teleportation beyond Y: ±20,000,000 is no longer allowed. | ||||
? | Players are now kicked beyond Y: ±30,000,000. | ||||
1.16 | 20w10a | Players are no longer kicked if beyond Y: ±2,147,483,646 allowing for travel for as long as java can understand. | |||
1.17 | 21w13a | Players are no longer kicked beyond Y: ±30,000,000,[5] allowing for travel for as long as java can understand. | |||
? | Exiting a world beyond Y: ±20,000,000 causes the player to be moved to Y: ±20,000,000 upon logging back in, a bug that Mojang decided not to fix.[6] However, edited world file still allows the player to be moved beyond these limits. | ||||
? | The player cannot be moved beyond Y: ±20,000,000 via editing the world files, as logging in now always clamps the player's position to Y: ±20,000,000. |
Older version effects[]
Infdev[]
On February 27, 2010, version of Infdev, many side effects would occur as the player walked thousands or even millions of blocks away.
- X/Z ±512–1,024: Clouds stop rendering.
In Infdev 20100327, walking off the edge would cause the player to become stuck in a glitched position, unable to escape.
In previous versions of the game, if the player teleported as high as they possibly could, they were sent to a Y-Axis of 3.4x1038. In this zone, the player floats without a purpose, and dropped items that slide with what appears to be no friction before suddenly stop after about 20 blocks. It has been reported that the X and Z-Axis sometimes flicker randomly in this zone. The memory pie chart also sometimes randomly jumps to 100% undefined memory usage, and then disappears upon re-entering the debug menu.
Full release (1.0 - 1.6-1.8?)[]
There is a limit at ±2,147,483,647 where the rain stops and there is an invisible roof meaning you can't go further. Items don't drop nearby the 32-bit integer limit. Rain stops nearby the 32-bit integer limit. Strangely, the player still renders correctly. 1.4 shows error commands.generic.double.invalid with teleportation. Pressing F5 in 1.3-1.6 crashes the game.
Fake chunks[]
As the player journeys even deeper into the Far Lands, the effects worsen to the point where the game is unplayable. At X/Z ±32,000,000, blocks are treated as permanently nonexistent, and do not generate even though they may appear to. When Minecraft generates and loads chunks, it loads an empty version of the terrain, complete with grass, stone and water textures that cannot be walked on. This map generates out to the 32-bit integer limit. The game can load chunks only out to X/Z: ±32,000,000, causing a problem between the noise map and the chunk generator. To fix this problem, Minecraft removes the chunks generated beyond X/Z: >±32,000,000 and generates only the noise map. If the player tries to walk on this map, they fall into the void. This value is hard-coded in the source code of Minecraft, meaning that it cannot be changed without editing the source files. Because chunks technically do not generate beyond X/Z: ±32,000,000, things like trees, falling gravel, falling sand, mobs, grass, and other entities do not generate either. This can make the map relatively stable and crashes can be somewhat rare; however, crashes can happen on low-end computers. In rare cases, if the player performs the "ghost spawn glitch" that worked in versions between Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 and Beta 1.7.3, the player can cause trees and plants to generate beyond ±32,000,000. However the framerate was actually much better the further one went because of no entities.
Console info[]
In the Xbox 360 Edition, PlayStation 3 Edition, PlayStation Vita Edition, and Wii U Edition, the Overworld is limited to 864×864 blocks. Additionally, in the Xbox One Edition, PlayStation 4 Edition and Nintendo Switch Edition, the player is able to further select the size of their worlds, from Small (1024×1024), Medium (3072×3072), and Large (5120×5120, except Nintendo Switch Edition). The edges of these worlds are surrounded by an invisible barrier with an endless sea of water beyond it. Before being patched out over time, there were often several exploits that could be used to glitch past the border, such as using boats, or using hundreds of TNT Minecarts to blow the player above the world height ceiling.
Issues[]
Issues relating to "World boundary" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[]
- Traveling from one edge of the world to the opposite edge by powered rail would take 35 days and 10 hours. Building the rails for such a trip would require enough iron and/or gold to fill over 723 double chests, even when packed into blocks, as well as sticks made from enough wood to fill over 135 double chests (as log blocks, not as planks, and excluding the redstone torches). (53 stacks of logs would be required just to make enough chests to hold all the building materials for this rail track.) If already crafted, the rails required would fill 17,361 double chests. If the player had to gather the materials to make all those rails, they would wear out 14,404 diamond pickaxes and 300 diamond axes (on average, about 3,601 diamond pickaxes and 75 diamond axes, both enchanted with Unbreaking 3).
- Even if one were to amass all these materials, actually laying said track would require the player to travel the entire distance through other means anyway.
- Factoring in the need for powering the track and assuming the player were to use redstone torches, the player would require 3,529,412 torches for the full track, since a torch can optimally light 17 blocks. That requires 55,148 sticks and bits of redstone dust, which requires 2042 large chests, which requires 128 stacks of log blocks to make the chests (which requires 3 large chests).
- Traveling from 0,0 to the edge of the world by foot takes around 140 days.[7]
- From -29999984, 0, -29999984 to 29999984, 255, 29999984 there is a total of 921,599,016,960,262,144 (921 quadrillion) blocks in the default world border (Including air blocks)
- It is possible to generate trees and vegetation beyond 30,000,000 by loading a version of Minecraft after Java Edition 1.9, then load a few chunks beyond the world border. Then, close the world and load a version of Minecraft between Beta 1.8 - Release Java Edition 1.6-pre[verify] and load the same world. If the players travel to the world barrier, there are a few chunks that generate beyond 30,000,000 that have trees and grass.
- It is possible to even generate Far Lands chunks using this method. Load a world in release Beta 1.8 - Release 1.6 and teleport to X/Z: 30,000,000. Close the world before the fake chunks generate and load the world in Beta 1.7.3. The Far Lands chunks load and then, the player can load as many chunks as they want. Then close the world and load it in a newer version, and the player has Far Lands chunks in the 30,000,000 block area.
- Spiders can climb the border, continuing to climb upward indefinitely.[verify].
- In Minecraft 4k, there is a barrier on the bottom of the map, which is unbreakable by any means.[8]
References[]
- ↑ MC-198928 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
- ↑ MC-198945
- ↑ a b MC-171710 — resolved as "Won't Fix".
- ↑ "End of the infdev" – Fractal on YouTube, June 8, 2010
- ↑ MC-123587
- ↑ MC-221890
- ↑ https://www.twitch.tv/videos/520538488
- ↑ "The bottom of the world in Minecraft 4k" – BSPMinecraft on YouTube, December 2, 2013